Idk why you took my comment as a defense of the mining industry I was just pointing out why there are towns out in bumfuck mountainous areas.

But I would point out, 1) full communism is a ways off and until then we're probably gonna have to keep mining shit. It ain't like China doesn't haven't any mines.

And 2) there's still a lot of infrastructure in rural areas that requires some people live out there and those people generally want actual communities to live in not work camps, so I think this idea a lot of leftists have where we can clear out the entire country save for like 5 or 6 cyberpunk mega cities and make everything else a giant nature reserve isn't really as viable as most people think, least not in any near future